Start on the right (well-fitted) foot

Right fit: At Hunter Shoes the friendly and professional staff have 30 years' experience and the right equipment to ensure shoes are fitted correctly on both feet.

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Here’s one good reason to get school shoes fitted properly: some estimates put kilometres travelled in those shoes to be around 2600 km per year.

Stuart Shepherd, from Hunters Shoes at Springwood, gave another reason.

“It's important to get school shoes fitted properly as children spend up to eight hours a day in them,” he said. “The negative outcomes of a incorrectly fitted pair of shoes can be blisters, corns, ingrown toe nails, general foot discomfort and, at worst, foot deformation.”

Mr Shepherd said to prevent these problems, the shoe should provide room to grow. “Ideally be looking for, at the very least, half a size up on the length measurement. But the ideal amount would generally be one size up (around one cm or thumb nail),” he said. “One size up on length measurement should, on average, give eight months of growth, although all children grow at different rates.”

He provided these tips to spot a well-made school shoe:

Firm heel counter (cup around back of heel)

Should not flex or twist mid foot (heel to arch)

Should flex at front of shoe under ball of foot (behind the toe line)

Deep toe box

Lace, buckle, velcro fasteners to hold foot firmly in place.

Full grain leather uppers so the foot can breathe (some shoes are marked as leather upper but are coated leather which does not breathe).